


Getting sick (when we don’t have time for it)

by LapisLazuli13



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Everyone Needs A Hug, Family Bonding, Gen, Number Five | The Boy Needs A Hug, Number Five | The Boy-centric, Post-Season 2, Protective Siblings, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, Self-Indulgent, Sickfic, This is fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-11-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:46:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26315905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LapisLazuli13/pseuds/LapisLazuli13
Summary: “You’re hot,” Klaus blurts out, and immediately all the others throw at him various kinds of incredulous looks.“… Is this your drugs talking or another disturbing glimpse into whatever inhabits inside your thick skull?” Five narrows his eyes at his brother, finally slaps his hand away.“When did he even have the chance to get high?” Allison shakes her head, seeming both worried and perplexed. “We literally are thirty minutes after getting out of another dooming apocalypse then get back here, and he’s pretty sober up the last time we checked.”“Sorry, that came out wrong,” Klaus holds up both his hands in a placating gesture. “I mean you’re hot in ahaving-ridiculously-high-temperatureway of hot, like your skin is burning up, Five.”
Relationships: Ben Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy & Allison Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy & Diego Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy & Klaus Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy & The Hargreeves (Umbrella Academy), Number Five | The Boy & Vanya Hargreeves
Comments: 48
Kudos: 524





	1. The symptoms.

#  **Getting sick (when we don’t have time for it)**

…

##  **_1, The symptoms._ **

After the gasps and their collective ‘shit’, all of the Hargreeves siblings know that they just avoided the second apocalypse in the past and finally got the chance to come back to 2019 with each person still in one piece, only to stumble into another hell hole of trouble. As if the way Reginald Hargreeves – their ex-father for now, as bizarre as it sounds – announced both the disappearance of the Umbrella Academy and the existence of the Sparrow Academy with his signature cold and distant voice isn’t bad enough, a doppelgänger version of adult Ben walked into the room and eyed them with suspicion and a pang of distaste before he questioned their identities.

It doesn’t help much when that person’s voice sounds painfully similar to their deceased brother’s, too.

“Ben–” Klaus is the first one who speaks up, disbelief drips in his tone. Which is understandable, considering the fact that he just lost his ghost brother after nearly two decades of co-existence, hasn’t had proper time to mourn about it, but then he comes back here to see a living and breathing version of that brother, and the first thing that came out of this Ben’s mouth was _‘Dad, who the hell are these assholes?’_. Saying he’s in shock might still be an understatement.

“Why the hell do you know my name?” Ben narrows his eyebrows, his gaze directs at Klaus. Five catches a quick glance at his siblings, notices how tense each of them is. Diego already takes out one of his knives, Luther’s face is a mix of shock and confusion, Vanya’s eyebrows lower into a quizzical frown, Allison’s expression is quite unreadable, and Klaus… Five has a feeling that his dead-conjured brother probably wishes that he wasn’t sober at this moment, and he could sympathize with that.

He then turns his head to look at the Ben in the Sparrow Academy’s uniform again. An adult version of Ben, looking more solid and real than Five’s ever remembered, wearing somewhat similar clothes with him but with a very different logo on the vest, having a _horrible_ choice of hairstyle… All these things silently scream an uncomfortable feeling of unfamiliarity but the distrusting expression on his face toward them sets the final score, this Ben neither knows them nor seems to have any intention to get along with them in a civil manner.

He might still be called Ben, but he’s not _their Ben_. Realization comes with a sharp pain tug at the Umbrella siblings’ heartstrings, and it probably hits Klaus the hardest of them all.

“Dad, are those people intruders? Do we need to attack them?” _Not-their-Ben_ sounds impatient while looking at Reginald, but the old billionaire remains eerily silent. The atmosphere is unsettlingly quiet that it’s almost suffocating.

“Dad–” Luther opens his mouth to break the silence, but apparently couldn’t come up with anything. That one word makes not-Ben’s eyebrows force into an intense scowl when his gaze flicks from the old man to Luther, a faint hint of disdain now plasters across his expression.

The possibility for them to have a civil and peaceful conversation without getting anyone injured is pathetically low, Five calculates inside his head, ignoring the pang of a painful headache which is slowly increasing after each second passed by.

“Ben, why would you–” Klaus chokes on his breath, eyes wide in denial. Realistically speaking, he knows that person isn’t the brother he’s way too familiar with, but after years spending together and not even a full day to start the acceptance process, he couldn’t just take such a painful fact at face value that _easily_. Especially when he’s still sober like this.

“We’re not going to deal with this shit right now,” Five abruptly decides with a groan before grabbing Klaus’ arm – thankfully that Klaus is the nearest person to him – and blinks to an alley on one side of the manor.

Klaus stumbles forward when they materialize on the pavement, one hand jerking up to cover his mouth at sudden nausea. Swallowing down the bile, he temporarily forgets the unfinished attempt of a conversation one minute ago to choke out a complaint. “At least warn a guy first, won’t ya?”

“No time for that,” Five replies before disappearing inside another blue portal, then reappearing after one second, this time he takes Diego with him.

“Five, what the f–”

Diego growls, but Five doesn’t stop to hear the rest of whatever his brother’s gonna say. Two other jumps with Allison and Luther, and Five stops for a second to steel himself a bit – consecutive jumps with passengers exhaust him quickly when he’s already in a tired state, nothing new – before making the last teleportation to get Vanya and the briefcase out of the house. He drops them off with less grace than before, but Vanya manages to keep her balance just fine. Five lets out a relieved sigh at that, resting both his hands on his knees to catch some breaths.

“I think we have to talk to Dad,” Luther gravely says. That suggestion is met with collective sighs from the rest of his siblings minus for Five, who only scowls at him like he’s an unbelievable idiot.

Well, maybe that isn’t too wrong, though. After discovering that his so-called Dad didn’t even bother to take a look at any of the reports he had done when he’s on the moon and being rejected shamefully while trying to talk to him in the past, Luther’s first reaction when he saw the eccentric billionaire again could still be categorized as a ‘happy confusion’ when he said he’s glad to be back to live with Reginald in their house. (which he immediately got corrected _‘This isn’t your home’_ , as heartless as it sounded.) Old habits die hard, apparently.

“Talking won’t do anything,” Diego rolls his eyes. “You’ve already talked to him when we’re still inside, Luther. And we all heard what the fucking old man said.”

“But what did he mean with _‘I knew you’d show up eventually.’_ then?” Allison sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose. “And those Sparrow Academy’s people, who the hell are they?”

“New version of us in this timeline, apparently,” Five grunts impatiently. The nagging pain at his head is making him feel more and more uncomfortable and harder to focus. “And whoever the old man is, he clearly isn’t a mere human.”

“New version…” Vanya repeats his words with a frown. “He replaced us with six… no, five different people who were born on the same day with us?” She adjusts the number because of Ben, and everyone knows that.

“Six,” Five corrects her, silently curses when his head starts to feel dizzy. Making multiple spatial jumps with passengers less than an hour after exhausting himself subsequent to trying a new time-rewind power is a big no-no, noted. “I still haven’t figured out why, but I have a feeling that the floating green cube is actually a member in that Sparrow squad.”

“Sounds _fan-fucking-tastic_ ,” Diego mumbles. Allison rolls her eyes at that while Vanya lets out a soft sigh, shaking her head a little.

“The old man probably felt we’re not gonna grow up into a team of superheroes he would want to have after that _lovely_ dinner with us in the 1960s, so when the year 1989 finally came, he picked up another set of children to groom into a new, better version of us,” Five concludes his theory, shaking his head a bit then squints at the briefcase lying innocently on the ground. Still only one, so maybe it’s just a weird trick of the light or something that made him think he suddenly saw two of them for a split second.

“Better version of us?” Luther questions, sounding equally baffled and disbelieved.

“Well, considering the fact that it’s 2019, our old daddy dearest is suddenly alive and all of those Sparrow Academy people are still staying under the same roof, probably wearing the same uniform, I guess he at least succeeded in making a ‘family’ which is less dysfunctional than us,” Klaus muses. He seems to have better coherent thoughts when he’s sober, but the haunted look on his face makes the pain feel real and raw. It doesn’t suit him.

“There’s always a way to find out who’s better,” Diego shrugs, fidgeting with a knife. “A fight.”

“No, we won’t make things worse by starting an unnecessary fight with those Sparrow Academy people for now,” Five clicks his tongue in annoyance, one more time purposedly ignores how dry his throat feels at that moment. The headache is still there, but he figures that a cup of black coffee can fix both those problems later. Or maybe two cups of coffee, gosh he needs that so bad.

Luther protests, “We’re not going to fight–”

“You aren’t the one who can make that decision, Luther,” Five spats out with a threatening glare, pointed at Luther then Diego. Such a jerky movement makes him feel disoriented for a second, but he quickly swallows down the discomfort to continue. “And none of you is going to step inside that house for today. We fucked up this time, and we need to come up with a plan to fix it in which doesn’t involve any of you idiots making this even a bigger mess than it already is.”

“Five has a point. Well, I think we do need to talk to Dad,” Allison reassures, voicing her opinion before either Luther or Diego bites back. “Just… not today. We have had enough for the past twelve hours, both our bodies and our minds are exhausted.”

“Allison’s right,” Vanya speaks up, her tone is soft but calm. “We should take a rest first, and come back to think about solutions for whichever problem we’re having later. We all deserve a rest, at least.”

“Even without a dooming apocalypse, this timeline is still so messed up,” Klaus sighs dramatically. “I can’t wait to get high again.”

“You seriously–” Five groans, but Klaus quickly cuts him off.

“Brother of mine, it’s time for you to let loose a little bit,” waving a finger in front of Five, Klaus cracks a smile at the intense frown forming between the other’s eyebrows. “All the avoiding apocalypses stuff has been driving you crazy in the past few weeks. I know you’re already somewhat psycho, but without a world for us to save right now, you could take some time off to, I dunno, actually rest for a day?”

The headache somewhat manages to get even worse with jolting pain occurs sporadically. Five’s eyes feel tired, his vision goes blurry, and he doesn’t want to admit that his brother has a point this time. A rest sounds wonderful. “We don’t have time–”

“Yes we do, we stopped the apocalypse twice, remember?” Klaus laughs, poking a finger at Five’s knitted brows. “Ease thi–”

He stops rather abruptly, hand still hovering millimeters away from the other’s forehead before four out of five fingers press against Five’s skin, and his smile slowly disappears.

“What?” Five scowls at his lanky brother while the other’s hand is still in contact with his forehead, swallowing down the urge to push it away violently. He thinks that his glare would be enough to send out a _‘get your hand off me before I do it for you’_ message, and a (seemingly) sober Klaus should be observant enough to get it.

In response, Klaus only stares at him, his expression now replaced with a mix of both confusion and concern when his hand quietly moves around to check _whatever-it-is_ on Five’s both cheeks, and then the pulse on his neck.

“Klaus–” Five says the other’s name with a hiss, drawling the last letter with a slow, dangerous tone laced with irritation.

“You’re hot,” Klaus blurts out, and immediately all the others throw at him various kinds of incredulous looks.

“… Is this your drugs talking or another disturbing glimpse into whatever inhabits inside your thick skull?” Five narrows his eyes at his brother, finally slaps his hand away.

“When did he even have the chance to get high?” Allison shakes her head, seeming both worried and perplexed. “We literally are thirty minutes after getting out of another dooming apocalypse then get back here, and he’s pretty sober up the last time we checked.”

“Sorry, that came out wrong,” Klaus holds up both his hands in a placating gesture. “I mean you’re hot in a _having-ridiculously-high-temperature_ way of hot, like your skin is burning up, Five.”

It takes some seconds for those words to sink in, and Vanya is the first one who speaks up, moving closer to her former assassin brother. Her voice is soft and laced with concern. “How are you feeling, Five?”

She holds up a hand tentatively like she’s planning on touching him to either confirm or disprove Klaus’ words. Five flinches backward a bit as a reaction, quietly hissing when another pang of pain throbs around his head.

“I’m fine,” he replies aggressively, then quickly adds when he notices hurt flashes across her face. “Just a little bit tired after all those jumps, Vanya. Don’t worry about me.”

Vanya bites her lower lip a bit. “Let me check your temperature, Five. If you’re fine, you should be okay with that.”

She’s looking at him with genuine concern filled those eyes, and Five hates himself for a moment because he couldn’t find words to say no to that pleading look. Vanya sighs softly at it when she interprets the other’s silence as assent, lifting one hand to gently press on Five’s forehead.

She lets out a gasp, and Five curses inwardly.

“You have a fever,” Vanya concludes, the worry is now evident on her face. “Your skin is burning up, Five. Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Irrelevant,” Five mumbles dismissively. A fever, huh? That could explain the stubbornly throbbing headache, the blurry vision, and why he feels like crap overall. But a fever isn’t an imminent danger, so he doesn’t see why should he voice his feelings about it out loud.

“We really should have a talk about hiding injuries,” Diego grunts with dissatisfaction. Allison grimaces when she immediately gets flashbacks about that time when Five hid his wound from shrapnel until he passed out from blood loss. Their brother honestly has a severe lack of self-preservation.

Five scoffs, “This isn’t an injury.”

“It isn’t, but those are both dangerous without proper treatments,” Allison decides to be the third person to check up on Five, and she gasps loudly when her hand comes in contact with his forehead. “Oh god, Five, your fever’s at least 39°C for now! You seriously can’t be fine with it!”

“I’m not sick,” Five grumbles, flinching back since he doesn’t want to rudely slap her hand away, but his voice feels hoarse. “Stop being such a bunch of worrywarts. I’m not a child.”

“No matter what your age is, you can’t run around like that when your temperature is up to around 39°C, Five,” Allison replies with her motherly concerned tone, and it only irritates Five more.

“Watch me.” Five growls with an attempt to disappear and then reappear in zaps of blue flash light right next to his sister to prove that he’s still as fine as his mind suggests, but after making that jump, his knees unexpectedly buckle, making him stumble forward right before promptly collapses.

“Five!”

…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: I _only_ wanted to write an oneshot.
> 
> My brain with tendencies to overcomplicate things and my gremlin hands: _**No ~~you’ll elaborate~~.**_


	2. The fever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Running on spite and fury isn’t a healthy way to maintain your stability, Five.

##  _**2, The fever.** _

…

“Five!”

Thanks for Diego’s great reflex that he catches Five just in time before he could fall face-first on the pavement. One hand grabs the other’s shoulder to help him stand still, and Diego’s eyebrows furrow with concern. Even with some layers of clothes, he could still feel the abnormal heat radiates from Five’s skin. Some beads of sweat are visible on his forehead now, and his breaths come in each short, shallow intake follows by a ragged exhalation.

There’s no way this obstinate prick could be fine with his skin burning up this badly, but before Diego could join the _‘I’m voicing my concern about your temperature, Five’_ little group, the fifty-eight years old teenager shoves his brother’s arms away with less force than he intends to. “Get off me.”

“A ‘thank you for catching me’ would be nice, but I take what I could get,” Diego rolls his eyes, couldn’t be bothered to get angry at the other. “You’re still a grumpy old man even when you’re sick, do you know that?”

“I’m not–” Five objects, but before he could finish his sentence, his body betrays him with a violent cough that almost makes him double over, and he sways on his feet again. This time both Luther and Diego extend their arms to help him stand still, and neither of them retreats despite Five’s irritated scowl when he insists with a raspy tone as an aftereffect of the cough. _“I’m fine.”_

It’s almost amusing that even with a high fever and his current status of being trapped inside a prepubescent boy’s body, Five still manages to look truly menacing when he glares at Luther and Diego as threateningly as possible. If they’re in a different situation, Klaus would probably have laughed already, and Ben might even join him. The thought cuts his breath short with silent pain ghosts over his mind while his gaze flickers at an empty spot, almost hope to see a familiar face there.

But all he gets is a big fat disappointment. Swallowing down a curse, Klaus decides to focus on their current trouble to prevent his mind from wandering around potentially dangerous abysses: Five, being the stubborn jackass he is, still refuses to admit that he is, in fact, not even remotely close to the definition of ‘fine’.

“Stop being so damn stubborn, you can barely stand on yourself now,” Luther sighs exaggeratedly, doesn’t budge an inch. “Let us help you, Five.”

“Ha. Don’t you see how funny this is?” Five snickers derisively, a hint of bitterness edges in his tone. “Now you suddenly being all kind and helpful when I don’t ask for it. Why weren’t you like this when I told you that the apocalypse was coming and we had a very slim chance to stop it then?”

Five turns on his feet, jabbing an accusing finger on Luther’s chest. There are visible red streaks in his sclera, making his eyes appear bloodshot. Probably due to exhaustion, sleep deprivation, resentment, and whatever it is that gets trapped inside his tiny stature for only God knows how long that he’s been bottling these things up. He has occasionally snapped at them (and maybe some unfortunate individuals that got into his way), but those small bursts of anger usually get brushed off by himself and his restless attempts to find a way to avoid the apocalypse.

But now, without an ongoing doomsday to stop, Five is standing in front of them, looking strangely vulnerable in his thirteen-year-old boy body without the usual intimidating aura that he manages to carry with him to make up for the child-like characteristics he currently possesses. Exhaustion finally catches up on him, and objectively speaking, they know its ugly marks couldn’t look good on anyone, but it seems to be much more terrible on a teenager look-alike with pale skin and juvenile features.

Why none of them actually paid attention to Five before? Gosh, they suck at this whole _‘being siblings should include taking care of each other’_ stuff, don’t they?

“Five, those are two different things,” Allison interjects before anyone could make the situation worse by reacting to Five’s vexation with their own quick-tempered attitude. She’s painfully aware of the fact that none of them has the healthy emotional maturity of an adult, for god’s sake. “I understand that you have your reasons to be mad at us. We could talk about it later if you want to, but we shouldn’t stand there blaming each other for now. That doesn’t help to solve anything.”

Five snorts, but he doesn’t retort by any sharp remark. Either he has better toleration and a soft spot for his sisters, or he’s just too drained to even try arguing with her. Allison prefers the former thought since it’s more than concerning if her brother’s really that fatigued.

Even though the way his body nearly gives up standing when he takes two steps forward to avoid his brothers fussing over his health might indicate that the latter idea is more likely closer to the truth. Allison bits her lower lip when this time Vanya manages to grab Five’s arm to hold him still. Five doesn’t push their small sister away, but he refuses to lean against her to keep his balance. He stubbornly takes some small steps backward until his back touches the wall, leaning on it with a heavy sigh when a particularly nasty pain throbbing inside his head.

“I just need one minute,” he announces breathlessly, hating his own voice for sounding so hoarse and weak. This time he couldn’t blame his siblings if they didn’t believe in his words since he himself doesn’t think that only one minute could help to alleviate all these awful feelings either.

“Shall we take him to a hospital?” Vanya worriedly asks, clearly doesn’t buy any of his words.

“No hospitals,” Five protests, but his voice wavers and lacks the usual bite when he continues. “Just in case you guys haven’t noticed, we just collectively got unadopted, so we don’t even know for sure who we are in this timeline. Besides, I look like a thirteen-year-old that disappeared seventeen years ago, and even if there wasn’t any missing report for me, what are you gonna do with the legal documents that need to be filled when you put me into a hospital?”

“Allison can rumor them–” Diego suggests, but Five quickly cuts him off.

“I only have a fever, Diego, so stop trying to make the situation more complicated for all of us,” his voice sounds tired, but there’s still an edge of his usual assertiveness. “And I swear that I’ll teleport away before any of us set one foot ten meters close to a hospital, consequences be damned.”

As much as Five’s siblings hate to agree with him this time, they have to admit that his logic sounds reasonable, and he knows how to make a convincing threat.

“Alright, so no hospitals,” Luther compromises. “We still have to find a place to stay for the night, though. And to get some proper care for your condition, Five.”

“We’ll still need you to use Allison’s ability to rumor people if we want to get some motel rooms,” Five remarks, frowning when the headache’s still thumping in his head. It’s disturbingly distracting. “I’m thinking if any of us still has a personal place in this timeline, it would be more preferable.”

A place to stay for the night that is neither a hospital nor a motel is not an easy choice for them to make. Luther had spent all his life prior to the first apocalypse either at the mansion of the Umbrella Academy – which quite certainly no longer exist in this timeline since they probably fucked up big another time already, but that problem can wait for them to deal with later – or on the moon, so his places are easily out of question. Diego’s boiler room is too small and doesn’t seem like it’s equipped with as many as possible necessary care for a sick patient. Allison doesn’t live in the city, Klaus didn’t have a proper living place before, Five came back from the post-apocalypse after spending nearly four decades living on a destroyed planet. Ben… Another Ben exists as a member of that Sparrow Academy and they probably have so many things that needed to talk about, but again, that’s a problem that can be saved for later.

“That leaves my apartment,” Vanya concludes, looking quite distressed. “I don’t mind all of us spending a night there, but I don’t know if it’s still mine or not.”

Five contemplates for a moment, ignoring another wave of exhaustion just washes over his body. His mouth feels dry when he opens it again. “It’s not too far, I think I could make a few jumps to reach there, possibly taking Vanya with me to check–”

“NO!”

The same rejections come from all his siblings make Five’s eyes widen a bit in surprise, but his expression quickly morphs into another displeased scowl. He grits his teeth. “What? Do you think I’m incompetent–”

He unexpectedly gets cut off again, this time by Klaus. “You’re in no condition to make your spatial jumps alone, not to mention taking another person with you, and I know you know that, Five. Just… stop testing your limit that way, it’s borderline self-destructive,” he holds up a hand when Five opens his mouth with an attempt to protest. “I’m the master of self-destructive behaviors in this family, Five, it takes one to know one. I won’t deny that you’re the smartest one among us, but that doesn’t mean the rest of us are all imbeciles.”

“We’re all adults here, Five, and we’re just trying to look out for you, okay?” Allison reasons, suppressing a sigh. “Let us be responsible for once, alright?”

It’s either the genuinely concerned look on Allison’s face combined with her reassuring tone when she stated that they’re all adults or Five’s too tired to put up another unnecessary protest that will more than likely help to exaggerate his headache, but he finds himself begrudgingly keep quiet this time.

“So… are we still going to my apartment?” Vanya supplies helpfully, changing the subject. “Uhm, to check it first, nobody knows if it’s still my place…”

“… We’ll take a taxi to your apartment to get that question answered,” Five mumbles, his voice continues to get thinner despite his struggles to keep it even. It’s getting harder to remain conscious, and Five hates it when he couldn’t be in full control with his body. “If we truly run out of luck, can you get us some rooms in one of the near motels, Allison?”

Allison nods her head without a word this time. They would need her ability to convince a random taxi driver to give them a free ride to Vanya’s apartment anyway, but the fewer times she might have to rumor people to get what she needs, the better.

.

It takes them some minutes to wait and get a seven-seater taxi. Allison quickly claims the front seat in order to control the situation with their rumored driver. Luther takes the backseat, Klaus quietly follows suit, carrying the suitcase with him. Five gets the middle seat between Diego and Vanya, and he’s quite busy scowling in embarrassment because of the fact that he needed assistance from his siblings to get into the car since his legs suddenly didn’t want to cooperate anymore that he doesn’t bother to complain about the seat arrangement. It’s not just his legs feel heavy like someone tied lead balloons on them, now his whole body aches in various places, and his eyelids keep dropping. Before he could stop himself, his mind promptly shuts down, and he drifts off into the darkness.

“Five’s asleep,” Vanya softly whispers, doesn’t want to make any noise louder than necessary. “He must be very exhausted.”

Five is an incredibly prideful person, and under normal circumstances, he would never let anyone – includes his own siblings – see him in such a vulnerable, defenseless state like this. Judging by how quickly he falls asleep, they couldn’t help but wonder: just when was the last time Five had a decent sleep? Probably not even one time in the last week since they all knew how it went – crazy wouldn’t be enough to describe those days. But before that…

“We all had spent from some months to three years in Dallas when we got scattered along the timeline of the 1960s,” Allison ponders, realization slowly dawns on her face. “But does anyone know how long it was for Five? From the moment he time-travelled us back to the past right before the world got destroyed, I mean.”

“He landed right on another doomsday which wasn’t supposed to happen before we screwed up saving the world the first time,” Klaus mumbles, looking at a side as a habit before he suddenly remembers that the usual presence of his ghost brother next to him for years isn’t there anymore. This is the second time in fifteen minutes he catches himself thinking about losing his brother _one more time_ , and Klaus tightly clenches his jaws when he decides to shove the bitter feeling aside for now since he doesn’t want to deal with both _that_ and sobriety at the same time. “If I remember correctly.”

“You’re right,” Diego nods his head with a sigh. “Then Hazel appeared and they travelled back ten days, trying to find a way to stop another apocalypse. At least that’s what he told us when we’re at Elliott’s place.”

The atmosphere inside the car shifts into a stifling silence at the mention of Elliott. They only got to know the man for some days before he’s brutally murdered by some Sweden assassins from that damned Commission Organization that followed them. They couldn’t save him… Elliott was just an innocent soul that unfortunately got involved with their bizarrely extraordinary fate.

“I hope his soul is in peace,” Vanya quietly says, and her siblings let out some collective sighs and murmurs of agreement. They continue their ride in silence, neither of them wants to start another conversation when everyone is busy chasing their own thoughts.

…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn’t plan on writing Klaus/ Ben angst at first but re-watching two last episodes of season 2 made me _feel_.
> 
> This self-indulgent story got better responses than I expected when I posted the first chapter, and I’m truly thankful for all the support you gave me!! I might not reply to all comments, but I want you to know that I read each of them at least twice, and I cherish every single comment and kudos this story gets. Thanks again for reading, please leave a comment if you like the flow or want to point out any mistake I could’ve made, I really appreciate that! Please take care of your health too, stay healthy and hydrated!


	3. The apartment.

##  _**3, The apartment.** _

…

“Let me carry Five,” Luther offers when the taxi stops, and nobody argues with him when they all leave the car as quietly as possible since they don’t want to wake Five up. After checking one last time to make sure they don’t forget anything on the taxi – even though the only one thing that doesn’t attach to any of them is the suitcase, they know Five will be mad at them if they lose it, so better safe than sorry – Allison rumors the driver to forget all about what happened in the last hour before letting him go.

“Follow me,” Vanya takes the lead to guide them to her apartment, a vague sense of hope thumping in her chest. After all, none of them has any idea who they are in this new timeline, so it shouldn’t be a surprise if she finds out that the apartment is no longer hers anymore. They have one or two backup plans, maybe, but it’ll be better for them if they could get even just a faint feeling of familiarity. Gosh, Vanya knows she needs that after spending months living with amnesia and then finally got her memories back in probably one of the worst ways possible. And heartbreaking, too, in more than one aspect. Taking a deep breath, Vanya reminds herself that she shouldn’t dwell on those thoughts too much at this moment for the sake of dealing with their currently more high-priority problems.

One of those said problems, for example, a brother of hers who has been as stubborn as a barren of mules since he’s still a kid, and his obstinacy only gets worse when he ages.

.

Luther has carried his smallest brother like this one time before, and even though it feels like a distant memory now, his siblings’ words when they exchanged a conversation in the car now occur to him that for Five it’s only been around two weeks and four days. That time, Five was so light in his arms, and carrying him around was as easy as a piece of cake for Luther. Super strength aside, now he thinks about it, Five was alarmingly thin for a thirteen years old boy back then, almost borderline malnourished. But now, even with the absence of the mannequin he held with Five that time – she barely weighted anything for him, after all – he could still feel that Five somehow seems to get even _lighter_ after those two weeks.

And that’s concerning. Luther knows that Five doesn’t have the healthiest diet or lifestyle – can’t blame him when there was not one but two literal impending apocalypses that he desperately tried anything to avoid them happen so eating healthy certainly didn’t make its way into the top priorities for him – but now when the blond tries to think about what has this kid eaten recently, all he could come up with are images of Five downing several cups of coffee and some bottles of vodka. And a sandwich with peanut butter and marshmallows he made after falling out of that time portal the first time – that hardly can count, though. He had to have some snacks or other food throughout the time because it’s almost impossible to survive and function with only caffeine and alcohol in one’s system, but Luther doubts that Five has eaten a decent, proper meal for once in his eighteen frantic days running around doing only God knows how many things to prevent the two apocalypses.

And Luther realizes, with a belated sense of guilt, that he hasn’t exactly been helpful at all for the most parts. He certainly wants to make up for it now, if Five lets him.

_“Put. Me. Down.”_

Of course, things wouldn’t go on that smoothly. Maybe the jolting movements wake Five up, even though Luther is trying to be as gentle as he could. Or maybe his brother’s a light sleeper – it doesn’t really matter now. Luther briefly thinks about the possibility of getting his arms chopped off by Five, then decides that there’s a higher chance Five wouldn’t do it to him, at least for now.

“Are you deaf, Luther?” Five questions, irritation evidently drips in his voice, despite how raspy it sounds like. He struggles against Luther’s hold, but his attempts aren’t strong enough to make his brother loosen the grip.

“It’s just a short distance, and nobody will judge you for this,” Luther sighs, doesn’t let go of Five. “Besides, if you really want to, I guess you could’ve teleported away already. The fact that you haven’t done it yet proves that you’re still exhausted.”

“It’s almost amusing that your single brain cell decides to be activated at such an unnecessary time like this,” Five sneers, but anything he’s gonna say next gets interrupted by another nasty cough. Luther’s eyebrows furrow with concern that he doesn’t even have any spare thoughts to get mad at Five since his cough sounds _painful_ , and he doesn’t like how the other’s body is still radiating heat like that.

Five’s scowl is intense when he closes his eyes and lets out a shaky breath. He clenches both his fists tight next to his head, his face distorts into a pained expression. That quickly agitates all his siblings, especially his sisters. Allison keeps glancing at him with worry filled her eyes while Vanya slows down her steps, looking over her shoulder with concern.

Five swallows down the nausea feeling before reopening his eyes to give the others a look that dares them to say anything. Truth to be told, it doesn’t look truly threatening to any of them, but they still get the message and all unceremoniously decide to keep their mouths shut at that moment.

The group of siblings reaches the front door of an apartment on the second floor after a minute of walking in silence. Vanya reaches out her hand and turns the knob to the right. It’s locked, but none of them is surprised by that.

“I can pick the lock,” Diego offers, but their small sister shakes her head.

“Let me try to find the key first,” Vanya says, eyes darting around some familiar spots that she used to hide a spare key.

Allison stands next to Luther, hovering one hand above Five’s forehead for a moment before she decides to just put it down to check his temperature, worry etches on her face. Five doesn’t have the energy to tell her to back off, so he begrudgingly ignores how her expression changes into a motherly concerned one. He probably will tune her out if she opens her mouth to say something, though, he’s heard enough of those worried words from everyone in such a short amount of time that it feels kinda overwhelmingly heart-warming and annoying at the same time at this point.

“I found the key!” Vanya announces from somewhere in front of them before Allison could say anything to Five, holding up a key she found underneath the doormat. Her fingers tremble a little when she puts the key into the lock. Finally, after some seconds, they hear a barely audible ‘click’ from the lock.

It seems like the universe still has some mercy left for them when they find out that Vanya’s place miraculously still exists and they get access into it – that’s a mystery that none of them is going to question since it’s one of the few things that are still in their favor at least for now. They all crash inside with sighs of relief after the door swings open.

“Put him on the couch first,” Diego instructs, and Luther carefully lays Five down. For a moment, the boy wants to scowl at the cautious treatment and insists that he isn’t a fragile porcelain doll, but then he decides against it. Doesn’t worth making his headache worse than it already is.

“Vanya, do you have a thermometer?” Allison hurriedly asks, her eyes darting around trying to find what she needs.

“It’s probably in the first-aid kit in the bathroom,” the other sister replies, hands busy rummaging through one cabinet as she’s looking for some tea. Vanya knows that Five would prefer coffee, but she didn’t find any in those few spots that she usually put her coffee ground jar. Besides, she doesn’t think drinking coffee would be a thing she would voluntarily let Five do in this current situation.

Klaus finally can let go of the suitcase when he drops it down on an armchair placed near the couch. “Honestly, I don’t know what will we still need this for, but I figure it’s important to not lose it, so here you are, _mi hermano_.”

Five only grunts as a noncommittal reply. A few beads of sweat are visible on his forehead, and his breathing sounds uneven, a little bit ragged. The fever is still there since they have done nothing to alleviate it, and there should be at least a cause for that to happen because one’s temperature wouldn’t rise up for no reason. Even though none of them is a doctor, having a childhood as a group of child soldiers occasionally proves that it still gives them one or two advantages: they’re more familiar with the human body than average. For example, they all know how to treat a broken bone most effectively or how to break it the quickest in the first place. So hopefully, they could deduce the cause of Five’s condition as soon as possible without any episode of ‘trials and errors’, especially when their brother insists on not going to any hospitals.

“There’s no first-aid kit in there, Vanya,” Allison’s voice echos through a distance, probably from the bathroom she’s in.

Some clattering noise right after that catches everyone’s attention. Vanya just drops something on the floor, but thankfully it wasn’t some fragile glasses or ceramics. She then sinks to the floor, two hands hastily trying to collect whatever’s scattering around. Klaus quickly flies to the scene to assist her.

“I… I have to help Allison find the thermometer,” Vanya sputters out, her voice is shaking a little bit when her hands’ movements halt rather abruptly.

“Don’t be too stressed, Vanya,” Luther already moves from his spot, placing one hand on their small sister’s shoulder as an attempt to calm her down. “I’m gonna go help Allison. Just breathe and don’t be panic, okay?”

Vanya weakly nods her head. Luther glances at Diego, hoping he could convey _‘help me to take care of them for now’_ in just one quick look. He and Diego rarely agree on anything – they have been headbutting on almost every single problem since they’re kids, to be honest – but this time the knife-thrower seems to understand the blond when he curtly nods his head without any further argument.

“Ask Five if he has any injuries that we don’t know of,” Klaus suggests after he’s done with helping his little sister. “He’s good at hiding injuries since he’s a child.”

Those aren’t exactly Ben’s words, but similar to something he once said, Klaus muses one second after the sentence already left his mouth. Dammit, he misses Ben so badly, and besides Dave, Klaus has never ever thought he could even miss someone this much. Dave was – and still is – the love of his life, while Ben’s his best friend and his dearest brother. The feeling of not having either of them by his side is almost unbearable when he’s this self-conscious. Maybe after taking proper care of Five, he should get something to cloud his mind to temporarily forget all of this. Sobriety is so, so overrated, anyway.

“Where did all these injuries come from?” When Klaus is busy mulling over his train of thoughts, Diego meanwhile already did what his brother suggested, and now he huffs at the sight in front of his eyes, half-worried and half-irritated. There isn’t any deep, open, and currently bleeding wound on Five’s body (at least in places that he could check for now) but that doesn’t make the amount of scratches and bruises look less disturbing, especially when they provide a stark contrast against the boy’s pale skin.

“We fought, don’t you remember, you idiot?” Five hisses, there’s still a hint of irritation in his voice, but at this moment it sounds uncharacteristically weak that it makes Diego feel more concerned than annoyed at his brother’s attitude.

“We didn’t find any first-aid kit or thermometer,” both Luther and Allison emerge into the living room, Allison with some towels in her hands while the other is carrying a large bowl of water. “But at least these could help to cool his fever off even just a little bit for now, until we find something more helpful.”

Vanya looks at them with a distressed expression on her face. “I’m sorry…”

“Don’t be. It’s not your fault,” Allison quickly reassures her sister with a soft tone before she sighs, making a decision. “I’ll go shopping. We need some medical equipment to treat Five, and probably some food for all of us, too.”

It’s true that she doesn’t want to overuse her ability, but moral questions with it aside, it’s clear that they have more important things that require her rumors right now. After all, she needs to do that for her family, so it isn’t entirely bad or selfish, right?

“I’ll go with you,” Luther offers while putting the bowl on the table, and Allison agrees, giving Vanya the towels she’s holding.

“You know what you should do, right, Vanya?” She smiles at her sister, then nods her head approvingly when the other timidly gives her a nod of agreement. “Good, I believe you’re the best choice to take care of our stubborn brother, after all.”

“Thank you, sis,” Vanya makes a tiny smile when she puts one towel into the cool water to soak it thoroughly.

“You’re the one we should say thanks to,” Allison shakes her head a little bit, patting her sister’s shoulder. “We’ll be back as soon as possible, don’t worry.”

With that statement, Allison quickly walks toward the door with Luther tags along. Vanya puts a damp cloth on Five’s forehead, and her brother accepts it with a frown, but he doesn’t say anything or move his hands to take it off, so she counts it as a small victory. “How are you feeling, Five?”

“I’m fine.” He insists, as how the obstinate stick-in-the-mud he usually is would certainly do.

“Geez. We’re worried about you, grumpy old man, so can you at least stop being such a pain in the ass for one moment and tell us how exactly you feel, Five?” Diego rolls his eyes. Even though he says that with an exasperated tone, the concern is still showing in his voice.

“And I already tell you that _I’m fine_ ,” Five grunts impatiently. “I just need a rest, that’s all.”

“Your definition of ‘fine’ is either too twisted or entirely wrong, then,” Klaus sighs, then he giggles to himself. “And you’re hearing that from me, the resided junkie of this house, out of all people. It’s quite ironically funny, to be honest.”

Five throws at him a half-hearted glare that doesn’t even have a quarter of the intensity of his usual threatening look. “Shut up.”

“Oh, you have to make me,” Klaus chuckles jokingly before he switches into a more serious tone. “How bad are his injuries, Diego?”

“Those that I already checked? None serious or lethal, but all look terrible,” Diego frowns when he glances at Five’s lithe figure one more time. “This stubborn brat didn’t let me check all over his body to see if there’s any wound that he’s still hiding from us.”

“There is none,” now it’s Five’s turn to scowl as he scoffs with an irritated tone. “And watch your damn mouth because the last time I checked, I’m still older than you, Diego.”

“Said the same person who hid his shrapnel wound until he passed out from blood loss, and he also has a damned record of hiding injuries since he’s still a kid so now I couldn’t trust him when he said that he didn’t have any serious injuries,” the knife-thrower retorts.

“Wow, that’s probably the most eloquent thing I’ve ever heard you said, Diego,” Five deadpans with a sarcastic tone. Diego quickly decides that he, one more time, doesn’t give a flying f**k about his brother’s antic. He might be a vigilante, but he still has a rule against fighting a sick person. Or an infuriatingly stubborn asshole of a brother. Or children. Well, Five isn’t a kid and they all know that but he looks like one and that counts, too, Diego secretly reasons in his head.

“Oh, screw it, I don’t think the two of us couldn’t–”

The sound of the front door loudly cracks open effectively cuts Klaus off, and all the Hargreeves turn their heads toward its direction. It has been only ten minutes since Allison left. Could she possibly go get all the stuff they need that fast?

“Allison, you’re back earlier than we th–”

Whatever Vanya’s about to say dies down instantly in her throat when the door swings open to reveal a person that she’s never seen before. Judging by the surprised that quickly turns into alarmed expression on her brothers’ faces, she realizes that they might as well just get into another trouble.

 _“Who the hell are you people?!”_ The woman standing at the door is very much _not_ Allison, and after some seconds of shocking silence, she seems to snap back to reality when she shrieks with a high-pitched tone that’s almost hurtful to their ears.

“Woa, lady, could you please tone your voice down first before we could have a peaceful civilized little chat?” Klaus grimaces while reaching one hand to rub his ear. He’s heard many blood-curdling screams before (from people they fought, the ghosts that only him could see and hear, and even his own voice, too) but that doesn’t mean he’s completely comfortable and used to hear them.

“What are you doing in _my aparment_?!” The woman ignores Klaus’ suggestion when she continues to yell, voice a little bit trembling when her eyes widen in shock mixed with fear.

So it turns out that this apartment isn’t Vanya’s. _Well, shit._

…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! Thank you all so much for the support! It's November now and it might start to get cold in many places, so please take better care of yourself and stay healthy!


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